BRAT Diet for Toddlers - Not So Easy to Follow

Our household got hit with a stomach virus during February, and we started Monkey Georgia on the brat diet for toddlers. If you are not familiar with the brat diet, it stands for bananas, rice, applesauce and toast, and you are supposed to use it during a stomach virus until the symptoms are gone. Fortunately for us, these are all foods that my daughter will eat - at least most of the time. I am so glad that my Mama did not use the brat diet for toddlers on me. I am not a fan of bananas and applesauce does not sound appealing to me when I am ill. I'd rather have a glass of Coke and some saltine crackers. In fact, when I got sick two days after Abigail, I ate none of those things to regain my strength (saltines and soup were my strength builders).

The hardest part of the BRAT diet for toddlers was limiting Monkey Georgia to only those foods. She seemed to feel better between bouts of illness and would get very hungry. While Monkey Georgia will eat a wide variety of foods, she does get definite ideas on what she wants to eat and when. So while we were trying to limit her to the BRAT diet for toddlers, she was asking instead to eat pizza, steak and apple juice. While I can understand that she was hungry and wanted to eat, I also know that eating solid food is not great for your stomach when it's struggling with a virus and juice does not help either.

So each time she asked for pizza, I tried redirecting her to a banana or some applesauce (bananas are especially good for binding that which apple juice loosens, if you know what I mean). We finally broke down and did put some cinnamon on her buttered toast. She was much more willing to eat it that way, and even asked for it a few times. We also decided that although saltines are not specifically on the BRAT diet for toddlers that they would still be safe for her to eat. She was so hungry though, that she wanted to eat them one after another without pausing.

Using the BRAT diet for toddlers may limit the amount of time that it takes for your child to get better, but it can be difficult to know when to stop the diet. When Monkey Georgia was symptom free for twenty-four hours, we started allowing her to eat solid foods again. We even let her have a few treats, but within twelve hours she was sick again. That time we only allowed her bland foods, broths and no sugary treats until we all had escaped the threat of illness.

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